Archer [Fate/Prototype] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bowandblade) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
towerofanimus2013-08-15 07:28 am
bowandblade) wrote in towerofanimus2013-08-15 07:28 am
when the mind tortures the soul
Characters: Archer [AU3] and open
Setting: Any floor for August 12-15; any floor between dorms and floor 25 for August 16
Format: Action brackets to start. I'll follow preference after that.
Summary: Is there anything that can unsettle the King of Heroes' heart?
Warnings: Shadow children. Character death for August 16.
August 12
[The first smiling shadow had appeared on his bed on Sunday, so silent and unobtrusive that it might as well have been a second shadow. Archer had peered at it silently, suspiciously poked at it, but soon enough ignored it to go through his day. All is fairly well on the first day.
Receiving Ayaka's glasses in his mailbox does nothing for his mood. He spends a good portion of the time on floor 58, skewering countless corpses and cutting into them as a means of releasing his anger.
When he returns to his room, he finds the note pointing him in the direction of the library. With the glasses still in hand, Archer hangs out there.]
August 13
[They had started speaking in whispers yesterday. Barely audible little sounds, wisps of longer sentences that seemed to be cut off. On Tuesday, those whispers growl louder and more coherent.]
Our king, blessed by the gods. Why did you not save us?
We are from your world, torn and ruined. You sadden us, King. Everything is gone, even the ruins of what you ruled.
You do not know. You do not know. You do not remember the world falling apart, do you? You, who must remember everything.
Everything is ruined, destroyed, empty... Woe be to all because of Gilgamesh.
[There are many of them, and they feed off of him even as they irritate him. But he cannot lash out against them or chase them off. Cannot outrun them. He cannot sit still in the tower, instead climbing and constantly moving.]
August 14
Archer.
[The voice is soft and weak, strained and familiar. His title instead of his proper name has him looking to the shadow children that are following him -- fewer now than yesterday, but still wavering and vaguely familiar behind those white, wide grins.]
I never got to thank you. For what you did. Saber came back with the potion, from you.
[His lips part as he realizes what the shadow -- what she -- is saying. His eyes widen underneath the fringe of his disheveled hair, no longer raked back.]
And now I never will. Never, never. I'm from your world, our world, and I was never saved. I never drank the antidote, and the world ended.
[Archer doesn't know why he feels lightheaded. Why it affects him as much as it does. But he turns and bows his head, walking away from Ayaka's voice. He heads to floor 7, to the swimming pool, and dives into its depths. To distract himself.]
August 15
[The tiredness did not completely leave him after yesterday, evident from the faded violet of his collar. The shadows that follow him are fewer now, quieter in their lamenting. He doesn't have the energy to be angry at them, to deny their existences.]
Archer.
[He recognizes the voice and looks up.] I was expecting you to talk yesterday, when your Master did. Holy sword wielder.
She had her time. And now I have mine.
[It had not been so long since he had heard Saber's voice, but there is still that clip of tension that had eased with the Saber he had met in the tower. He walks through the lower flowers, floors 10 and 11, as if meaning to drown out the shadow's voice with the sound of flowing water.]
The King of Heroes. That is what you were. Your ancient kingdom may be gone, but you were still the King of Heroes.
[He says nothing. He needs no reminder of what he is.]
What will you rule now? There are no more heroes. No more Heroic Spirits. No more wars.
You are the King of Nothing. Of No One. Of Nowhere.
Now you are as you have acted. You are no king.
August 16
[Archer has trouble climbing out of bed in the morning. It's a matter of going through the motions, of trying to focus. He is so weary that he almost doesn't notice that the mass of shadows that had been following him had dispersed to somewhere beyond his immediate periphery.
In their place is a single shadow, smiling its white, wide grin and only vaguely familiar.
But now, he knows what the shadow is. Why it has persisted for so long. Why it would not leave when the others could be chased away. Why it does not speak.]
There is a place. A meadow. I want you to see it.
[He has a long way to walk. But he will walk. He will journey, just as he did in another lifetime.
And the shadow child walks behind him, just as another had in another lifetime.]
Setting: Any floor for August 12-15; any floor between dorms and floor 25 for August 16
Format: Action brackets to start. I'll follow preference after that.
Summary: Is there anything that can unsettle the King of Heroes' heart?
Warnings: Shadow children. Character death for August 16.
August 12
[The first smiling shadow had appeared on his bed on Sunday, so silent and unobtrusive that it might as well have been a second shadow. Archer had peered at it silently, suspiciously poked at it, but soon enough ignored it to go through his day. All is fairly well on the first day.
Receiving Ayaka's glasses in his mailbox does nothing for his mood. He spends a good portion of the time on floor 58, skewering countless corpses and cutting into them as a means of releasing his anger.
When he returns to his room, he finds the note pointing him in the direction of the library. With the glasses still in hand, Archer hangs out there.]
August 13
[They had started speaking in whispers yesterday. Barely audible little sounds, wisps of longer sentences that seemed to be cut off. On Tuesday, those whispers growl louder and more coherent.]
Our king, blessed by the gods. Why did you not save us?
We are from your world, torn and ruined. You sadden us, King. Everything is gone, even the ruins of what you ruled.
You do not know. You do not know. You do not remember the world falling apart, do you? You, who must remember everything.
Everything is ruined, destroyed, empty... Woe be to all because of Gilgamesh.
[There are many of them, and they feed off of him even as they irritate him. But he cannot lash out against them or chase them off. Cannot outrun them. He cannot sit still in the tower, instead climbing and constantly moving.]
August 14
Archer.
[The voice is soft and weak, strained and familiar. His title instead of his proper name has him looking to the shadow children that are following him -- fewer now than yesterday, but still wavering and vaguely familiar behind those white, wide grins.]
I never got to thank you. For what you did. Saber came back with the potion, from you.
[His lips part as he realizes what the shadow -- what she -- is saying. His eyes widen underneath the fringe of his disheveled hair, no longer raked back.]
And now I never will. Never, never. I'm from your world, our world, and I was never saved. I never drank the antidote, and the world ended.
[Archer doesn't know why he feels lightheaded. Why it affects him as much as it does. But he turns and bows his head, walking away from Ayaka's voice. He heads to floor 7, to the swimming pool, and dives into its depths. To distract himself.]
August 15
[The tiredness did not completely leave him after yesterday, evident from the faded violet of his collar. The shadows that follow him are fewer now, quieter in their lamenting. He doesn't have the energy to be angry at them, to deny their existences.]
Archer.
[He recognizes the voice and looks up.] I was expecting you to talk yesterday, when your Master did. Holy sword wielder.
She had her time. And now I have mine.
[It had not been so long since he had heard Saber's voice, but there is still that clip of tension that had eased with the Saber he had met in the tower. He walks through the lower flowers, floors 10 and 11, as if meaning to drown out the shadow's voice with the sound of flowing water.]
The King of Heroes. That is what you were. Your ancient kingdom may be gone, but you were still the King of Heroes.
[He says nothing. He needs no reminder of what he is.]
What will you rule now? There are no more heroes. No more Heroic Spirits. No more wars.
You are the King of Nothing. Of No One. Of Nowhere.
Now you are as you have acted. You are no king.
August 16
[Archer has trouble climbing out of bed in the morning. It's a matter of going through the motions, of trying to focus. He is so weary that he almost doesn't notice that the mass of shadows that had been following him had dispersed to somewhere beyond his immediate periphery.
In their place is a single shadow, smiling its white, wide grin and only vaguely familiar.
But now, he knows what the shadow is. Why it has persisted for so long. Why it would not leave when the others could be chased away. Why it does not speak.]
There is a place. A meadow. I want you to see it.
[He has a long way to walk. But he will walk. He will journey, just as he did in another lifetime.
And the shadow child walks behind him, just as another had in another lifetime.]
no subject
Actually, she was half afraid she'd gulp down water again if she tried to dip underwater as he had.
"I find that doubtful. The version of you I know was very lustful. And, anyway, I am not interested in such things."
Because she did not want to speak of death anymore, now that she had some things to think about in regards to it. On top of that, her few experiences with such things had been awkward and uncomfortable at best. She truly did not understand why people enjoyed that sort of thing so much.
no subject
"You should not doubt my sincerity! There is pleasure to be found in many things -- a warm, willing body among them. But the pleasures of the flesh are of lower priority when there are so many other methods of entertainment."
no subject
"Like what?" she asked when his mention of other methods derailed her train of thought completely. It also kept her from asking him the very question of what he saw in the act.
no subject
"Technology! Books! Battle! Love!" He spouted out each form of pleasure with the same exuberance. "Do not tell me you came into the world with no thought to what was beyond the War."
no subject
Then she found she enjoyed the battle, at first, with honorable opponents. And the food of the era was good, as was the wine.
In the next, she had found someone who made even better food. Slowly but surely learned to be a person again before everything went wrong.
And in the Tower....
"....I do find I've taken a liking to video games here." It was what she often did when she simply needed to pass the time. "And cartography. I've passed the time making maps of the Tower since my arrival."
Which included maps of the Administrative levels garnered from interviewing people from every trip downstairs so far, but she could not share that part of her personal project too freely.
no subject
Archer again lifted his hand from the water, gesturing with his fingers. "That is not to say there is anything wrong with ancient methods. Pleasure is pleasure." The comment reminded him of what Saber had said just a moment ago, and he found himself smirking at her.
no subject
So naturally her mind would go to the gutter when she's focusing more on being above the water than on thinking the conversation through. Once again a grimace crossed over her face as she objectively thought about her (very) limited experiences in bed.
"And I said before I am not interested in such methods of pleasure."